Announcements and statements from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. The SCV was founded in 1896 to honor and preserve the history and heritage of Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

CALL FOR ACTION! SCV Seeks Justice in Alabama Heritage Violation

Compatriots,

By now I think most of you have heard about the truly evil action of an official in Auburn. Below is a release and request for action from Alabama Division Commander Reames. Please read carefully and proceed as I know you can!Deo VindiceChuck McMichaelCiC-SCVscvcic72@gmail.com

Please find below a press Release from the Alabama Division Sons of Confederate Veterans that will go out in the mail today to The local District Attorney, Alabama Attorney General, and U.S. Chief Judge for the Middle District of Alabama.

I have consulted with Alabama Division Judge Advocate Philip Davis on the matter and he informs me that for us to get the District Attorney and Attorney General to act, they will need political pressure to do so.

To accomplish this I am calling for an intense letter writing campaign to the Fouroffices below. Please keep your letters civil, but firm.

There is a very real likelihood that further calls for other action will be soon forthcoming. The Alabama Division SCV will do everything in our power to bring this miscreant to justice.

The Alabama Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, repudiates thelawless behavior of Auburn City Councilman Arthur L. Dowdell in removing ConfederateMemorial Flags from veteran's graves at Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn, AL. Confederate veteran graves are to be lawfully respected as any other American veteran graves, according to United States Congressional Law.

Councilman Dowdell stated the flags were offensive to him. He thenbroke Alabama state law when he trespassed on private property, anddesecrated sacred burial sites, and that is offensive to us.

By stealing and destroying the flag that was placed on a veteran'sgrave, in the very presence of his descendant, Councilman Dowdellviolates every tenet of decent human behavior. He showed a dangerous propensity for taking the law into his own hands, an action that will not be tolerated or otherwise encouraged in others.

We believe this crime was motivated by hate, and want to see justicedone. We are requesting that the local District Attorney prosecuteCouncilman Dowdell to the fullest extent of the law, and if need be,we are counting on the Alabama Attorney General to see that the lawsof Alabama are upheld. Further, we would like to see FederalProsecuting Attorneys convict Dowdell for violating United States hatecrime laws.

Mary Norman was shocked Thursday afternoon when Auburn CouncilmanArthur L. Dowdell pulled up a Confederate flag placed on her great-grandfathers'sgrave and snapped it in half, she said.

Dowdell, who denies snapping the flag, said Thursday he was picking up his daughter from Auburn Junior High School near the cemetery when several people told him they had a problem with the flags. He drove to the cemetery and started pulling up flags, he said. "It's offensive to me,"he said. "To me, it represents the Ku Klux Klan andracism."

The United Daughters of the Confederacy placed the flags earlier this week, as they have done for 50 years, in preparation for a celebration Sunday of Confederate Memorial Day, Norman said.

Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated as a state holiday in Alabama Monday."I really didn't know exactly how to respond to him," she said. "I happen to bea member of the Daughters of the Confederacy. "I was very surprised, especially (as he is) a city councilman. I was amazed."

Norman was not personally involved in placing the flags. "I'm a historian," she said. "We're not about hate, we're not about anything like that. We just want to honor our state's rights, and I've got Confederate ancestors, and I feel we should have the ability to do that."

Norman and a friend were takin g inventory of graves at Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn when Dowdell drove up and asked who put up the flags, she said. "One of the flags had been placed on my great grandfather's grave, who was a Confederate soldier," Norman said. "He just got very upset, and he went over to my great grandfather's grave, picked up the flag and broke it in two."

She said Dowdell did not know the plot she stood on was her family's. The flags wereplaced on soldiers' graves as a mark of respect, she said. He pulled up Confederate flags from other soldiers' graves, too, she said. Dowdell said in his years as councilman, he had never seen so many Confederate flags in one place.

"I'm going on the record that this will never happen again," Dowdell said. "Thiswill never happen again as long as I'm on the city council." Dowdell denied intentionally snapping the flag. "It might have snapped itself," he said. "If it did, so what? If I had my way, I would have broke them all up and stomped on them and burned them. That flag represents another country, another nation."

Auburn Mayor Bill Ham said he was unaware of any incidents at the cemetery but said he talked with Dowdell Thursday afternoon. Ham said his understanding was that all city cemeteries have covenants governing how and what types of decorations can be placed on graves, except for Pine Hill because it is so old. Ham said he believed Dowdell asked an assistant city manager to look into making policies equal for cemeteries across the city.

"The bottom line is those grave plots are deeded property," Ham said. "We sellthose. So they are sold to the family of the individuals, and I think (plot owners) have a right to do exactly what they did, according to the city attorney."Ham said in his conversation with Dowdell, the councilman suggested the flags be placed on the graves for a shorter period of time, perhaps for 24 hours before the event.

For now, the remaining flags will stay on the graves because of the lack of covenant governing Pine Hill, Ham said. But that could change in coming years."I certainly think we need to be consistent in all the cemeteries with whatever the policy is, not only with this, but with everything," Ham said. "The council has got to make that decision."

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AlabamaCode on desecration of venerated objects.

Section 13A-11-12Desecration of venerated objects.(a) A person commits the crime of desecration of venerated objects if he intentionally:(1) Desecrates any public monument or structure or place of worship or burial; or(2) Desecrates in a public place the United States or Alabama flag orany other object of veneration by the public or a substantial segment thereof.(b) Desecration of venera ted objects is a Class A misdemeanor.(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §5555.)

U.S. Federal LawPublic Law 85-425 passed on May 23, 1958 states: .......the term "veteran" includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States ofAmerica during the Civil War.....

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